Since Russell Domingo took over as head coach of the Bangladesh cricket team, the Tigers have been performing consistently – consistently poorly, that is. Under his coaching, Bangladesh lost a Test to Afghanistan and suffered a clean sweep in a two-match Test series against understrength West Indies as well. Now, his role is finally facing the scrutiny of the board.
The Tigers’ recent assignment was in New Zealand where they crashed to six defeats across two formats and their winless drought in New Zealand across all three reached 32. In this tour, Bangladesh lost every game without offering any sort of resistance. This failure prompted the influential board directors to hold a meeting to discuss Domingo’s future as Bangladesh’s head coach.
BCB parted ways with Steve Rhodes after the World Cup 2019, and right after that, they appointed Domingo as the head coach, though, the South African coach applied to BCB to work with the development group of the cricketers, instead of the national team. But the board had decided to award him the role of the head coach of the national team considering his long-term vision.
His so-called long-term vision was interrupted due to the Covid-19 outbreak throughout the globe last year. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, he coached the Tigers in at least three series but failed to produce a good result.
The board is now set to evaluate his role as the head coach after the home series against Sri Lanka in May this year, said Akram Khan while talking to Cricbuzz recently.
“We are expected to sit for an evaluation meeting after the home series against Sri Lanka,” Akram said. “We’ll discuss everything about our coaches to know where we really stand now. And of course, we’ll discuss Domingo’s role as the head coach.”
After coming back from the disastrous New Zealand tour, Bangladesh will now travel to Sri Lanka for a two-match Test series. They are scheduled to fly to Sri Lanka on April 12.
This series came as an ordeal for Domingo who is currently on leave. He is expected to join the team before the Sri Lanka Tests.
During the Sri Lanka series, the Bangladesh team will be accompanied by Khaled Mahmud, the former captain, as the head of the delegation. It is understood that he will observe closely the way Domingo coaches the team.
Mahmud believes that a coach is responsible to train the players and give them a good plan, and the rest is up to the players. While talking to the reporters in Dhaka, Mahmud said: “The players have to play well. A coach can give you a plan and train you well. I don’t know what happened to the team. I’ll try to find out that in the Sri Lanka tour and take steps accordingly.”
